NASA boss outweighs Pluto's planetary status – BGR

One of the most popular debating topics on the Internet, at least in terms of astronomy, is whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not. Once classified as a planet, Pluto was "downgraded" by the scientific community and is now considered a dwarf planet.

Now, NASA boss Jim Bridenstine, although nobody really asked him for it, has included the debate, and he's definitely pro-Pluto. In a short video clip posted on Twitter, Bridenstine gives a somewhat ironic insight into Pluto's status. He definitely believes that Pluto is a planet, if for no other reason than what he learned as a child.

For decades, the schools taught that Pluto was the ninth and farthest from the Sun, but that changed a few years ago when astronomers began discovering many pluto-sized objects floating in the far reaches of the solar system , These discoveries forced scientists to rethink their definition of what a planet really is, and in the end Pluto did not succeed.

The international astronomy community decided that a world to be officially a planet had to meet three conditions. The first two ̵

1; that the object must circle a host star and be roundish – were easily fulfilled by Pluto.

However, Pluto did not fulfill the third requirement that the object must have vacated its "orbit neighborhood". from other objects. This meant that Pluto (and other similar sized objects hanging near the Kuiper Belt on the edge of our system) was only a dwarf planet.

Even among astronomers, there are still many disagreements about the fairness of these criteria, but the fact remains that at the moment Pluto is simply not a planet. Bridenstein's opinion will not affect the needle at all, and it's clear he does not expect it, but it's still worth knowing where NASA's boss is on this particular topic.